sounds like your friend was not successfull in doing a bios update on your computer...if you fail at this, your computer will not run..... the 3 amber lights indicate that your computer is in a bios failure recovery mode....
you will need to flash your bios from the the floopy drive to get your computer runnning again, no other way.
updating bios problems happen to me once on my gigabyte board, i was lucking , it had dual bios feature.........not need to flash, i just went into the other bios. was lucky
Try clearing the NVRAM (CMOS) to see if it resolves the boot problem. Possibily the information stored in the NVRAM (CMOS) became corrupted after the BIOS update which is not uncommon. Normally you would clear the NVRAM (CMOS) by entering the BIOS Setup, but it would appear that you can not do so. The alternative would be to remove the battery from the motherboard to clear the NVRAM. With the machine unplugged from the wall remove the battery from the motherboard. Then with the machine still unplugged press the On button for several seconds to dissipate any remaining electrical charge on the motherboard. Then re-install the battery, plug the machine back into the wall and see if it will boot normally.
If the machine still fails to boot then strip the motherboard down to the bare minimum. By bare minimum I mean remove all expansion cards, disconnect all drives and leave just the processor, memory and graphics card in the machine after reseating them. If the computer boots this way then start connecting each device one at a time until the no boot scenario returns. This would then indicate which device is having a conflict with the new BIOS version. Also try booting the system without the keyboard, mouse or any other device plugged into the rear of the system. If this procedure doesn't resolve the problem then you maybe looking at a situation where the motherboard has failed.
Altec9, try reseating the memory modules first. They may not be fully seated in their sockets or have a little dirt on the contacts. Reseating them will not only insure they are seated fully, but the procedure will clean the contacts at the same time. If the problem continues and you have more than one memory module installed then try booting with just one inserted. If you have the same problem then swap the installed module for the other one. If the problem continues then try replacing the motherboard battery before going out an buying more RAM. A failed motherboard battery can produce some erroneous errors and if the system had been sitting a while unplugged, a dead battery could be a possibility. For a $3 investment it's worth trying a new battery before spending money on replacing the modules.
Thanks Mystic, I think those steps put me in the right direction. After I finished all those steps and restarted the computer the diag. lights now display A + B as amber and C + D as green which after checking is that the ram is causing an error. So I guess I will now have to replace the ram. Any other thoughts on the problem would be greatly appreciated.
ronss
2 Intern
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2.1K Posts
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September 1st, 2005 19:00
ronss
2 Intern
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2.1K Posts
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September 1st, 2005 19:00
Message Edited by ronss on 09-01-2005 03:47 PM
Majestic
9.4K Posts
0
September 2nd, 2005 11:00
Altec9, try these suggestions.....
Try clearing the NVRAM (CMOS) to see if it resolves the boot problem. Possibily the information stored in the NVRAM (CMOS) became corrupted after the BIOS update which is not uncommon. Normally you would clear the NVRAM (CMOS) by entering the BIOS Setup, but it would appear that you can not do so. The alternative would be to remove the battery from the motherboard to clear the NVRAM. With the machine unplugged from the wall remove the battery from the motherboard. Then with the machine still unplugged press the On button for several seconds to dissipate any remaining electrical charge on the motherboard. Then re-install the battery, plug the machine back into the wall and see if it will boot normally.
If the machine still fails to boot then strip the motherboard down to the bare minimum. By bare minimum I mean remove all expansion cards, disconnect all drives and leave just the processor, memory and graphics card in the machine after reseating them. If the computer boots this way then start connecting each device one at a time until the no boot scenario returns. This would then indicate which device is having a conflict with the new BIOS version. Also try booting the system without the keyboard, mouse or any other device plugged into the rear of the system. If this procedure doesn't resolve the problem then you maybe looking at a situation where the motherboard has failed.
Majestic
9.4K Posts
0
September 3rd, 2005 15:00
altec9
13 Posts
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September 3rd, 2005 15:00